farewell ye decrepit castle

I dropped a peanut in my apartment one day, and i left it there. The next day it looked like this. In two days it had been moved to the nearest seam between floor tiles. On the third day it was gone.

If i were going to make my own online quiz, it would answer the question "what are the most important elements of fiction in determining your personal narrative?"

I think it's pretty important the way people construct and use a personal narrative in order to make sense of their life, and apparently I'm not alone.

But if we think of our lives like novels, then it must also follow that each persons personal narrative stresses certain literary elements.

I used to be fairly certain that 'theme' was my dominant element, but lately i've been thinking a lot about 'setting'...


Not just egypt either, but more specifically, my apartment in alexandria. (on the left)

At best, it reminded me of the runaway building from The Crimson Permanent Assurance by Terry Gilliam. (on the right) At worst, it was a sinister being with specific designs to ruin me.
Every new problem was an expected and accepted reflection of my degrading mental state. When the bathroom began to electrocute me during showers, i took it in stride.
When a rat moved into the kitchen and ate through the gas line, i simply stopped using the stove.

I think we all look to the inanimate world around us for reflective metaphors. When they stopped selling my deodorant the month i started college, it seemed a purposeful example of the division between old and new.
When i made a list of things that i hoped for in Korea, #1 was a tiny apartment where everything worked and nothing 'spoke' to me. My apartment had become such a perfect literary device that it had actually replaced the source material - my unhappiness.

Does anyone else have this happen?